Summer of 2982 to Spring 2983, Sarn Ford Station and the Smials of the Exiles
The masters kept up her weapons training and her Sindarin lessons. The language of the golug-hai came in handy when they captured the shara raider. Master Aravir was able to give her instructions the mannling could no understand. And the silly shara was afraid of her, and not of master Aravir's blue eyes. Now that's what's scary! Not her.
At the big camp they often ran into other Rangers. At first almost all grabbed their weapons themoment they set eyes on her, but with time they grew accustumed to her presence around Masters Honey and Shorty. Most simply got used to her, with a few even acknowledging. One or two even spoke to her! The majority gave her a "stay away" glare, however. She knew better than to go where she wasn't wanted, living with orcs beat such knowledge into one. The Rangers who talked with her were amused by her titleling the Masters Master. They were probably jealous that the Masters had her and they didn't.
She learned to ride the four legged creature the mannlings and golug-hai used for transport and sometimes for combat. She was given a small one. The masters said she could give it – it actually was a bitch – a name. They said it could be named anything – after a flower, animal, or famous person. So she named her pony Azog. The pony didn't mind the name while the Masters thought it funny. But Azog was famous – every orc in the Misty Mountains had heard of him! Some of the Rangers had male horses which wanted to do her harm. She still was not sure if they ate only greens – the way some looked at her she was quite sure they longed for orcflesh.
The little folk Master Shorty found for them to winter with were wonderful. They – Master Shorty and she - were going to live in a Hobbit style den – with those cute round doors and windows she'd seen in Breeland. The clever little folk made deeper walkways for Master, to keep him from hitting his head on things. Very clever builder hobbit. The woman – Gerasvinda – was with whelp! She was scared, however, when the orcess first mentioned helping her to whelp – and then she cried a lot without any apparent reason. She later agreed to her assistance and said that she is grateful. Seems that she and Hartmut did something which the other Hobbits think to be very bad and now they cannot live among other hobbits. They have tattoos on their hands saying they did ... whatever the hobbits considered to be bad things. So maybe Master Shorty was right about having tattoos being a bad thing after all. He also gave her a look and said that it is very bad manners to ask what they were cast out for. But Hobbits were not known for killing one another and were a strange folk to begin with, so she shouldn't worry that they'd do something nasty to her. Not that she'd allow it, she'd fought a shara bandit on her own and killed him.
Gerasvinda explained that she cried that day when Ashtuzual mentioned help with whelping as among hobbits it is a very joyous affair, with all the women in the family being present - from sensible teenagers up to the still mobile oldies. And here she won't have any of that. So she now is happy that the orcess will be there – a girl is a girl, after all. She only asked the orcess to trim her claws. Ashtuzual thought this silly, after all orcesses have been whelping with fully grown claws since the times of the Dark Lord, the Original ... but then again Gersvinda was not an orcess ...
She did not know that Master Shorty was so strong – she now saw him carry logs or stones for the dens, his muscles bulging. Funny how shakaturbik, hobbit, shara-hai and tark-hai all had thin fur almost all over their bodies, not like orcs. Orcs sensibly had hair only on their heads, in 'pits and on crotch. And Master Shorty also tought her and the male hobbit to swim. He also bravely stole a boat for her and Hartmut to hunt with – they took to quietly rowing across the river at dawn and shot – sometimes even simply netting – the incredible numbers of birds that were there. The birds were to leave before winter and come back in the spring – or so the Man and the Hobbit said. Ashtuzual had never seen such things while she was small in the den, she didn't get to see the sky that much.
Master Honey brought her a book about whelping! It had very interesting pictures showing everything! And sprogs and all too! Ashtuzual begged Aravir to teach her to read, so that she would know what does it say next to the illustrations. So the winter routine set in – some arms training, some hunting and trapping – although they did not venture deep into the forest, both feeling its animosity - plus Sindarin and writing lessons.
Hartmut found some inlets along the bank where the current was slow and the ice was thick enough to bear them. He cut out holes in the ice to catch fish. Ashtuzual found this to be a particularly boring, time wasting activity. Hartmut and Aravir, however, sat on wood stumps next to the holes for hours and were happy. Arm in arm with Gerasvinda and cooing at the rosy cheeks and toothless smile of Pansy waving her clutched translucent fingers about they agreed that regardless if mannling, hobbit or orc – males are all the same. They'll do anything not to stay at home and do some honest work. Even freezing on the ice pretending to fish was better.
For Ashtuzual the top new addition to wintering activities was baby sitting. First she assisted with the hobittess' labour, alongside Hartmut. The orcess grudgingly admitted that he might have some role too. Aravir was very glad to be pushed out the door, however. The whelping was everything the orcess imagined it to be and much more. For the first days it was difficult to keep Pansy out of Ashtuzual's arms and she was good naturedly shooed out of the hobbits' smial. She eagerly helped with the tiny fauntling whenever she could.
Once the chores of the day were done the blue eyed Ranger had a special treat for the orcess. They sat side by side on the bench next to their roughly hewn table. And by candle light the Dunadan read out loud from Basics of Midwifery Illustrated. This was to save Ashtuzual from struggling to read the difficult words and to immediately explain the meaning of words she did not know - if Aravir knew them, that is .
" ... at maximum dilation, approximately four inches ... "
"How much is that, show me!"
"More or less like this ..."
"Gerasvinda had less, maybe like this ..."
"You have seen women of the race of men in Bree, the book was written about them. Hobbits are smaller. Much smaller."
" ... four inches, the head ..."
"Can tark and hobbit boink?"
"I have not heard about such events. I have heard tales about it, but from people I'm fairly sure have never seen a hobbit, so I don't believe them."
Ashtuzual snuggled into the warm bulk of the Ranger - he wasn't like those shara in the slaver band and she did not fear him; well, she feared him when he glared at her but she did not fear him that way - and tapped her finger on the book.
"Next to this picture, what does it say?"